As the directorial debut of Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby effortlessly navigates the minefield of staging a dramedy around rape and power dynamics. Terrible things happen to the unfortunate Agnes (played by Victor), trying to find something worth living for as a literature professor at her New England college. But she finds a way to keep going on and maybe find the better parts of life, akin to how she instructs a class on a reading of Lolita. The students dart from the disgust of the central topic to the admiration for the way it was written, a reflection of the film’s off-beat nature that’d be enough to make a student nod and smirk as they remark, “Nice.”

Making this difficult script work is a strong start for the non-linear storytelling, starting with Agnes reconnecting with her former classmate Lydie (Naomi Ackie). Their time together with sandwiches on the beach and cozying up on the couch comes with frank discussions of the awkwardness with how men have sex and the exciting prospect of Lydie having a baby. Later, when they have dinner with friends, the darkness of the past casually comes up in conversation, where Lydie’s silent support is present. As the film progresses, the audience shares this perspective when a younger Agnes becomes groomed by Professor Decker (Louis Cancelmi). When he calls her over to his house to discuss her thesis, we don’t follow her inside for the inciting rape incident. We wait outside for hours. Night falls, and Agnes finally emerges, silently marching back to her car in the darkness, the camera right behind her. We want to know what happened, but, at the same time, we already know with each step and immediately start processing where to go next.

While Agnes does feel a notable amount of despair, trauma, and an emptiness for how this assault will never be punished, she finds some comfort in the absurdity all around her. When Lydie brings her in to the doctor for a rape test, the two of them have some fun with the terminology and awkward way the doctor tries to phrase sexual assault. While the doctor might be clinical, these two women have to deal with this traumatic event, and the levity is a much-needed break from the bleak storm of not feeling safe or wanting to continue living. Agnes finds a reason to proceed after such an event and not through something as melodramatic as finding God or the right man, though she does find some decent sex with her timidly understanding neighbor, Gavin (Lucas Hedges). It could be as professional as becoming a professor at her school or a tasty sandwich from a kind shopowner (John Carroll Lynch).

What I found most remarkable about Eva Victor’s direction is her faith in lingering on believable moments. The post-rape walk and drive home just hangs in the air, having us sit with the feeling as long as Agnes before she can confess to Lydie. There’s a mastery of tone in how she lets the dry remarks gain a laugh, and the half-thought jokes remain long enough for the awkward silence to garner a laugh. There’s also a direct nature to this material that makes it so amusingly alive, especially with the support of Kelly McCormack playing an anxious and viciously honest classmate, wearing her thoughts and emotions like a vibrant dress. One of the most telling and hilarious scenes is where Agnes is selected for jury duty. As she’s questioned for her civic duty, there are solid jokes about her application (“In the questionnaire you wrote, ‘how would your friends describe you: smart.’ You crossed that out and wrote, ‘tall.”), But her rape comes up during the questioning, where she earnestly states, “I don’t think the law works.”

Sorry, Baby is a delicate yet darkly comedic story about finding something to live for in a world of pain and trauma. For every professor trying to sleep with students, there’s a shop owner who will help you calm down. For every contemporary who is jealous and bitter about your success, there’s a kitten you can find on the street. There’s a lot to look forward to in Agnes’s life, but never any one thing that pulls her back from the brink. There’s never one aspect to appreciate life, as there is never one bad thing that drags us down. We are all a complex mess where the best we can hope for is to find the moments worth cherishing and do better for the next generations. Bad things will happen, and sometimes what matters most is how we deal with them in our own way. To quote BoJack Horseman, “Sometimes life’s a bitch and then you keep living.” This film is about living, never making hope seem so simple and serious, finding just the right moments to laugh at the absurdity and wonder of life itself.